77-0666

In 1991 aircraft 77-0666 was assigned to Myrtle Beach AFB Sc. flying with the 356th Fighter Squadron "Green Demons." It's pilot was Mike "Morning" Star, and the Crew Chief, Staff Sergeant Chris Damien. On the surface this seems to be no big deal until you look a little closer at how the names, numbers, and unit ties together to create a one-of-a-kind mystic around this A-10.

Demon Patch

First the unit patch. The patch is displayed on the left side of an aircraft's fuselage and the 356th's patch depicted a green demon's head emitting lightning bolts (Click on above patch for larger version).

The unit colors were red and green, so the tops of each stab tip were painted green, with a red lightning bolt. As you may or may not know, the Air Force also paints the names of the aircraft's' pilot and crew chief on the forward left side of the aircraft fuselage, under or near the canopy. Now picture this if you will. A camo green machine (An A-10 at that) with green stab tips and red lightning bolts, a large picture of a demons head on the side and stenciled on the nose the names,

Pilot - Capt Mike "Morning " Star

CC - SSgt Chris Damien

Also on the nose, tail, and wheel wells of the aircraft are the numbers 666.

Stab without the lightning bolt

Before I move on I must point of one thing that you may have missed. The name "Morning Star" was used in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, to refer to Satan before his fall from Heaven!

Add all this together and what do you have? A big ugly aircraft with green stab tips and red lightning bolts, a demons head patch on the side, the name of Satan and a popular symbol of evil Damien, and carrying the biblical "number of the Beast!"

All of this was no accident but put together by the folks at Myrtle Beach. I mean, an aircraft with the tail number 666! It just begged to be done. The crew chief and pilot were placed on the aircraft just for this effect and, the aircraft assigned to the Green Demons to finish the picture. This was all well and good until August 1990 when a man named Saddam Hussein invades the small country of Kuwait.

As the story goes no one thought twice about this aircraft while preparing to deploy to Saudi Arabia, they did had more important things to think about, right? Well, once there and after it looked like Saddam wasn't going to come south into Saudi, things settled down to a daily routine. During this time a "High Ranking" Saudi Arabian officer walked by the aircraft and it caught his eye. He put it all together and became outraged! Now the Saudi's are Muslims but he felt this was an insult to all religions beliefs and wanted the aircraft taken out of his country! After much feather smoothing and promise making, it was decided the aircraft could stay BUT, not looking like it did. Rumor has it that the names and demon patch were taken off the aircraft but, that was still not good enough for the Saudis. What the squadron finally did was change the number from 666 to 066, which made everyone happy.....Or did it! Again, rumor has it from that day on aircraft 666, now known as 066, broke almost ever day! It would have electrical problems no one could track down, and mechanical problems that after days of work, would fix itself! This aircraft flew fewer hours during Desert Storm than any other A-10. It seems to me 666 didn't like having it's name changed and patch removed!

Urban Legend or true story?

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